Smashed Cheeseburgers & Cayuse

If you asked me to pick my favorite food, cheeseburgers would easily be at the top of the list, followed by wings. As much as I enjoy fine dining, I’m just a burger & wing nut at heart. To be frank, I am the Margot character in the movie The Menu, as cheeseburgers are just so comforting to me. I’ll never forget watching that scene where she says she doesn’t like his food & just wants a cheeseburger. Incidentally, I made cheeseburgers that night while we watched the film which we found to be funny. You can also judge a cook or chef by how good, or bad, their cheeseburger is. Is it cooked to your desired doneness? Is it juicy, tender, and full of flavor? Or is it dry, overcooked, & bland? So on Friday night I decided to make some smashed cheeseburgers and pair a Cayuse Cailloux Syrah 2020 with them. This is a wine I haven’t tried, but have heard a lot about. In fact, I have never tried a single wine from Cayuse, so I was excited to open this. The wine is from Walla Walla, Washington, and is made up of 96% Syrah & 4% Viognier. It was founded in 1996 by a French vigneron named Christophe Baron who ended up in Walla Walla by way of an internship in 1993. Since then his wines have been critically acclaimed by critics all over the world. While critics adore his wines, a lot of sommeliers in the business have a love hate relationship with his wines. And that’s probably because they have a lot of funky brett on the nose. Brett, short for Brettanomyces is a yeast that can spoil the wine. It can be found in un clean barrels & wineries that aren’t super clean. It can add a medicinal, horsy, or animal like smell to the wine. The flavor can also be described as phenolic, spicy, earthy, or barnyard. Some wineries intentionally add a little of brett to the wine. Brett can be negative or positive depending on the consumer’s preference. Some find it to be a fault, while others do not. I really enjoy some brett & funk in my wine, so long as it doesn’t completely over power the wine. When we opened this wine, the brett was very prominent, & I told my wife to let it get some air as it was pretty strong. With air, the brett seemed to come & go as the evening went on. The wine has a nice savory & meaty quality to it, with fresh red fruits, earthy notes, minerals, & medium tannic structure in a full body with very nice balance & long finish. I’d be very curious to return to this wine in about 5 years or so to see how it develops. Overall we really enjoyed this wine, especially when paired with the cheeseburgers. I can see why a lot of people in the industry have a love hate relationship with this producer. For me, I really enjoyed this, even though it it not cheap. But hey, life is short, so it’s fun to splurge on a bottle every now & then.